I LOVE SNOW!!

Do you love snow as much as I do? I no longer go out and play in it like I did when I was young, but I love to sit by the window and just watch it coming down--like in a lodge in the mountains, with a roaring fire in the fireplace and lots of hot chocolate.

Grizzly bear in Alaska

Living in North Georgia, we don't get much snow at all. The recent huge snowstorm that blanketed the South rendered us with about five flakes, so I was disappointed again.

I have lived in colder climes, notably central Alaska, when I was in high school. Forty and fifty below zero temps were common, and needless to say, we had plenty of snow. It didn't melt at all until
spring, known as "the breakup," when ice on ponds and rivers began melting. My dad was in the military and we lived on a military post, and ice on lakes was so thick that soldiers drove heavy equipment across those lakes with nary a mishap. I will submit, however, that roads were much better in winter there than summer, because the thick ice covering the roads also covered huge potholes and cracks that were caused by freezing temps.

Mt. Hayes, near where I lived in Alaska

Now that I'm older, I don't think I could handle the winters in Alaska due to stiff joints and weaker muscles. It took courage to walk to school in frigid temperatures and strong winds. It seemed like the wind blew all the time, thus increasing the wind chill factor a great deal. My school was only a two-block walk, but when it's 50 below with the wind blowing, that's a tough trek--I learned to lean into the wind to keep from being blown over, literally! Plus, in winter, there's only a few hours of daylight, so I went to school and returned home in darkness.

The cold was a dry cold with very low humidity, so twenty below zero didn't feel any colder than +20 does here. I couldn't even form a snowball because the snow was so cold it wouldn't stick together. But it was more deadly, meaning frostbite was a real concern. I never got full-blown frostbite, but sometimes after being outside too long, my toes would be numb, and it was excruciatingly painful when they began thawing out. We covered our faces with winter scarves, but our breath froze on the outside of them, so fashion statements were out of the question! And the first thing we females did when we arrived at wherever we were going was head straight to the ladies' room and try to salvage what was left our our hairdos, since we HAD to wear hoods, hats, or at least earmuffs in winter.

There's nothing quite as beautiful as a heavy snowfall with large, fluffy flakes. The world seems to stop and become quiet then, too. And even mundane scenes take on quite a picturesque appearance when covered in snow. In any case, I do love where we live now (Atlanta area), but my heart longs for the beauty and serenity of snow.

   

Buffalo herd in Alaska: one morning I had
to walk past a herd on the way to school!

Mid-day in December